BBC Online 24/3/2000: "MI5 laptop snatched"

[Ian G Batten]

This is a multi-part message in MIME format...

------------=_953905650-21213-0
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Content-Md5: KTItQUfCnY/uMYYBKPClVg==

> And I thought it was the general consensus here that good encryption is so
> secure that you can allow anyone to have access to your secrets, oh, for =
50
> years or so :-) You really can't have it both ways, you know.

Would a random policeman, having exercised a search warrant, have a
laptop equipped with approved algorithms for ``top secret'' available to
store keys in?  Or would be just copy them on to something with no
encryption and carry them away?  My money's on the latter.  You might,
of course, argue that an MI5 officer who understands crypto wouldn't
need to take much care of his/her laptop, because he trusts the crypto.
But I don't think that means the aforementioned policeman would take
much more care.

The Telegraph, August 2 1996 (I am cursed with a memory for newspaper
stories: thank God for search engines that allow me to find them).


               FIVE police firearms officers, whose handguns fell out of
               the open door of their van, were each fined =A3400 by their
               chief constable at a disciplinary hearing yesterday.

               The incident occurred a year ago when the Nottinghamshire
               officers were returning from shooting practice with a
               holdall containing their Smith and Wesson revolvers
               jammed under a seat. When the van rounded a bend, the
               holdall slipped out of its side door, which had been
               opened for ventilation.

               The weapons were found by two young men lying in a
               country lane. Instead of handing them in, the men became
               involved in a plot to sell them but lost their nerve and
               dumped them in a ditch. During sentencing of the men at
               Nottingham Crown Court, Judge Dudley Bennett criticised
               the officers for "sloppy" behaviour.

               Michael Todd, Assistant Chief Constable of
               Nottinghamshire, said: "We have tightened up on procedure
               and ensured that guns will be locked away securely in
               vehicles, and doors will not, in future, be opened when
               vehicles are moving."

ian

------------=_953905650-21213-0
Content-Type: application/pgp-signature
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Description: PGP Information

-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
Version: PGPfreeware 5.0i for non-commercial use
MessageID: +TSM3wY2vL8sL6nkUNkrBimYsWntIJaT

iQB1AwUBONtx8soy0yij3IvtAQE6HwMA0ZwyoHPdOH3G3kse+PKI8AIYnQpKgZ3y
Zez8z3JNfTH7tRdPjZ35ueyQGPGPovRHvbT5UpGLZ9YPX95gYuHDeAtr7k7VXL5e
pXKihYVQWJW08xtgX9H7/XGasriDloKS
=ZQaH
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----
------------=_953905650-21213-0--